LEMOND titanium
 

Need help in identifying this LEMOND frame . I believe it’s a

Lemond Victoire classic Titanium. 2001
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3ae507fa2.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2ff6baaab.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...36e8b29fd.jpeg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6ff7af588.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8602f94b5.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d9afd5e53.jpeg

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It’s a beautiful frame, but I went looking for pics of Victoires of similar vintage and they all have a different dropout shape than this one (your one has nicer dropouts, fwiw). Are you concerned that it’s not a 2001 Victoire?
what are the engravings on the BB shell if not some serial#?

I don't know those specific frames.

Titanium is more dense than aluminum. It can be lighter because it can be *thinner wall*. I would not grab that frame by any tube in your workstand. Put in the seatpost and grab it there.

The weld fillets look large for titanium, at least based on the Ti bikes I've seen. Those fillets look more aluminum size. But the color looks right for titanium. The Ti bikes I've seen, I think were laser-welded, fine Ti wire feed and a pulse laser to bang the weld, looks like a much finer version of stack-of-dimes tig-welding.

I also wonder about the difference between the embossed number on the bottom bracket shell, versus the label, and also it appears some hand engraving to the left of the label on the underside of the downtube, no one with a clue would do that, as it's a high stress area.

I'll be curious what others say, and the provenance of that frame. We live in an age of a lot of forgeries, unfortunately. I hope that is not the case this time.

Contact Trek with the serial number. They should have the information

LOVE LEMOND TITANIUM !!

I have one....a 2003 Arrivee !!!!!

Had a painted Victorie. Hated the ride, had a wimpy bottom bracket, I could move the chain from big ring to small when I stood to hammer. Had to use a Campy Centaur shifter to get the front trim adjusted. Then the paint flaked off and Trek did a warrantee re-paint with THAT paint flaking off within a year. Then a crack developed on the downtube and Trek refused to warranty. I through the frame in the dump, Worst bike I've ever owned.

Not sure of the model but Reynolds 3-2.5Ti

https://www.reynoldstechnology.biz/m...t-3-2point5ti/

The fillet brazing looks very clean.

https://www.reynoldstechnology.biz/f...g-and-joining/

If it is an '01 then it was most likely built in house by Trek. I think there were some built elsewhere in the beginning, but I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast these days. I'm pretty sure I owned one of the first 5000 (yes, I know that's not Ti) Now GET OFF MY LAWN!....

Decals are wrong, fork is wrong, and as 13ollocks pointed out, the dropouts are wrong for that era. FWIW, the 2000 catalog I found doesn't have the Victoire; it first shows up in 2001.

It is always a good practice to clamp any frame by the seat post as to avoid scratching the paint on the frame. With that said, I have always and will continue to always clamp my titanium frames by the seat tube up towards the top tube junction. Of course I don't man-handle the clamp, just softly close it on the tube. Owned 3 of them and never had an issue. I even clamp all 5 of the 531 frames I made by the seat tube. Never an issue because the clamp is set softly, not clamped down hard.
Since the seat post extends into the frame one is not simply clamping down on the lone seat tube, but a seat tube reinforced by a seat post, and if clamping force is minimal there really is no issue to be had.

Geez, that looks pretty fake. The Dremel-engraved numbers, the serial number sticker, the aforementioned dropouts and fork…logo style is wrong for ‘01, and not seen until ‘04, by which time Trek was doing the carbon/Ti hybrid thing.

All Lemond catalogs can be viewed here:

https://archive.org/search?query=lemond%20catalog

whatever it is, it’s not one of the frames in any of those catalogs. That being said, it’s a nice looking frame and the welds look decent. If you’re looking to buy this, make the case that it’s not a Lemond and try to get a better price

I’ve been clamping my Ti and steel frames by the upper seat tube for years without issue. Wouldn’t do it with carbon, but Ti? No concerns except that years of clamping have messed up one of the decals

I do it too. Some people are just gorillas, though, so I’m sure as “best practice,” don’t clamp the frame… It’s like why Q-Tips boxes don’t make any mention of ear cleaning. They’re good for cleaning camera lenses and “fixing makeup mishaps,” but cleaning ears? Where’d you get a crazy idea like that?

First , the clamp wasn’t tight and I’ve since put a seat tube in and it’s now clamped properly . Sorry but I didn’t have a spare seat tube laying around and I knew I’d get heat for having it clamp like that
now, I am leaning towards more of 2004ish frame . The old decals still show where they were removed and “ Victoire classic “ is faintly visible. I’d like to pick up a set of seals that would have come on this bike , hence my quest to properly identify.
as far as the engraving on bottom , who know why someone would feel the need to dremmel beside the sticker of serial number . Your guess is as good as mine
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3eaa01c7e.jpeg
Looks like Victoire classic
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...221f6d153.jpeg
Property clamped .
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a1f2dce07.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...91c0fec9a.jpeg

The etched numbers are for anti-theft protection. Back in the 90's everyone around here was etching their SSN into everything as a way to ID a stolen bike. Although the number sequence etched into the DT are not SSN, it is still a way to ID a frame even though the serial numbers are on the sticker and the BB shell.

Yes that is another ID factor along with SN although probably easy to steel brush off back to original look?

This is a very interesting case to me, as I'd never heard of a Victoire Classic nor seen Lemond Ti with dropouts like that...except in the Ti/carbon frames. Anyway, I'm kinda familiar with Lemond but no expert, so poking around and looking at pics and whatnot, it appears entirely likely that everything on this frameset is correct, as the VC was apparently sold as a frameset only initially around '04/'05. That jives with the dropout style, the internal headset cups, and the graphics. I also thought the serial numbers on the BB were weird being hand engraved rather than stamped, but found a pic of an '04 Ti/carbon Victoire BB that was very much the same, or very similar in terms of the stippled, hand engraving.

Interestingly, I also found a 12 year old ****** thread where someone has a Ti Trek labled frame which looks like this one, and they claim to have correspondence from Trek confirming the '04/'05 Lemond origins and Trek rebranding of old stock in '08:
https://www.******.com/r/cycling/com...0:%20r/cycling

I can't confirm anything certainly, but am sufficiently satisfied that this is a genuine Lemond Titanium...so I learned some things!

Who made the frame? Litespeed?

Seems like contacting Trek would be a simple solution. My email always puts their responses in the spam file FWIW

Trek responded with 2004 Alp D’Huez .Because of red decals , but the decals are not a match . . Then Trek went dark and hasn’t replied to follow up email . The simple route has not helped

Can only add that this is not a 2000 Victorie, which was only offered with a full yellow paint scheme. Had it been offered in brushed I would have chose that, yellow was all they offered.

I don't understand why this thread was started here now, because it contains the same pictures and questions that was posted on Roadbikereview.com forums in August 2024. Is the OP the same person that posted it on Roadbikereview?

That thread is here: https://www.roadbikereview.com/threa...-frame.387980/

Anyway, it's not a 2001, but it is an authentic 2004-ish Lemond Victoire all-titanium "Classic", which differentiates it from Lemond's back then, (2004-2006) new line of ti/carbon spine frames. I have a 2004 ti/carbon Victoire and mine has the same style of dropouts, which are very elegant to my eye.

I also owned a 2001 Victoire all-titanium frame with the older style dropouts of that era. It was a great riding frame, and I have not doubt that this one is also great.

I did cross post the question . Sorry if you have a problem with that 🤷‍♂️

I'd guess that the OP wanted more answers than what they received on that other forum. No problem with that, at all.

Hey, no problem at all :) I'm glad you have the information that you're looking for now. I think it's a great frame.